


Combined Arms

by gelbes_gilatier



Category: Army Wives, Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Air Force, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ancient Devices, Army, Babysitting, Coaches, Crossover, Established Relationship, F/M, Female Friendship, First Meetings, Games, Gen, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Recruitment
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-01-16
Updated: 2013-12-06
Packaged: 2017-10-29 15:57:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/321622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gelbes_gilatier/pseuds/gelbes_gilatier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Series of post S5 Army Wives finale/post EATG crossover one-shots, written for my Holiday Fic Request Meme 2011 on LJ.</p><p>#1 <i>This Gun's For Hire</i>: Chase Moran gets an offer he might not be able to refuse.</p><p>#2 <i>Been a Bad Day</i>: That Army brat is going to be the death of Rodney McKay. Someday soon, she will.</p><p>#3 <i>Every Now and Then (We’re Actually Pretty Fine)</i>: If there is one thing Chase Moran <i>doesn't</i> like about Atlantis, it's that there's literally no way to find your kids if they don't want you to.</p><p>#4 <i>Grow and See</i>: Pamela Moran gets to watch something interesting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. This Gun's For Hire

**Author's Note:**

> As stated in the summary, this is the result of last year's Holiday Fic Request Meme on LJ. Army Wives/Stargate was surprisingly popular for requests in that meme, as I got three request from two people. Right now, two snippets are done, a third is hopefully being attacked today and a few are lurking in the back of my mind. They won't be posted in exact chronological order but I'll do my best to give you directions as to what is taking place when. Yes.

**  
This Gun’s For Hire   
**

_“You can't start a fire  
you can't start a fire without a spark  
This gun's for hire  
even if we're just dancing in the dark.”_  
   
 _Bruce Springsteen, “Dancing in the Dark”_

   
Live fire exercise and he tells himself he can’t wait for his last ever one. Only a couple of weeks until he can move to California with Pam and the kids. He’s not gonna miss it, or so he likes to think. Of course he isn’t. Who in his right mind would miss training, missions, training, missions… Seriously, who would?  
   
He will, that’s what. He didn’t tell Pam until now and he doesn’t plan to and something tells him she’s seen right through him anyway. Maybe it’s her being a cop or her being a mother or her being _her_ but she’s got him figured out. Which is a good thing because he doesn’t have to _tell_ her then, as in _out loud_.  
   
So he concentrates on the training again, pushing his squad, telling them the SEALs got nothing on them and Hell Week’s what Deltas do for breakfast. Rumor has it there’s going to be some big push mission in a couple of days and because he’ll still be with his squad then, he makes sure they give top notch performance. They’re not gonna lose anyone under _his_ watch.  
   
He shouts at them and he makes sure they don’t waste any ammo and put every single projectile to good use. They’ve been running on next to no sleep for three days straight now and they’ve crossed a river, done some rappelling and then everything is kind of a blur, but he’s pretty sure they’re still doing good. They need to.  
   
Not just for the mission but also because they’ve got visitors today, on the fourth and last day of their exercise. It’s the easy part; the obstacle course, Delta version. Still live fire but rather relaxing, even after the fourth run in a row. Couple of minutes break now, and then it’s the last run. Overlooking it all, their visitors.  
   
Two in civvies, but they’re not the guys he can’t stop glancing at, even though he needs to keep his eyes focused on the mission. There’s this guy. Air Force camos, Oakleys, pilot’s stance. Lieutenant Colonel. Looks harmless, has a dangerous undercurrent going. The kind of guy all of Pam’s friends would fall for hard and Pam the hardest. It’s not intimidating him but he keeps his eyes on the guy, just in case. And then the guy comes walking over.  
   
He looks at his squad and Biedermann raises an eyebrow, looking just this side of tired. Well, he’s gotta do something about that. Later. Because right now, Air Force guy reached them and he nods at them. His name tag reads “Lorne” and he notices a wedding band but the name tag and his rank insignia are the only distinguishing features on Air Force guy’s uniform. No unit patches, no wings, no nothing.  
   
Lorne just nods into the round and takes off his shades, saying, “Sergeant Moran?” looking directly at him.  
   
Huh. Resisting the urge to look at his squad, with an amused grin, he gets up, standing at attention. “At ease, Sergeant.” Okay. Parade rest then. “Walk a couple of steps with me.” What?  
   
“Sir?” He looks directly at Lorne now, determined to remember who’s a soldier here and who’s flying planes.  
   
Lorne, however, doesn’t seem to be very much impressed. “Simple order, Sergeant. Walk with me.”  
   
Well. That was clear. “Yes, sir.”  
   
Not looking back at his squad because he knows they’ll have his back regardless, he takes those couple of steps with the Colonel. A few feet away from his squad, out of earshot but observed closely by the two civilians, Lorne stops. “So… curious?”  
   
He blinks. It’s the slight smirk in Lorne’s face that mildly confuses him. “About what, sir?”  
   
“I’m sure you know about what, Sergeant. And I’m sure you’re _curious_.” There’s another smirk, a little more pronounced. Why does he get the feeling that this Lorne character isn’t some pencil pusher from the Pentagon, despite the two civilians accompanying him?  
   
Probably because he’s got that… _look_. The one Colonel Burton has, and General Holden and basically all the officer spouses of Pam’s friends. The one that tells you he didn’t get the fancy rank for nothing and that he can see right through you, no matter how many walls you have built. Nope, that’s not your usual plane jockey, he decides. “Alright, sir. Maybe a little.”  
   
“Thought so. I’m here on… a little recruiting mission.” That just makes him raise his eyebrow, knowing full well he shouldn’t do that in an officer’s presence. “I’m part of a top secret research facility. In fact, I command the military contingent. And lately, we’re… expanding. We need new personnel, military and civilian.”  
   
Uh-huh. That doesn’t tell him anything. “Where do _I_ fit in all of this, sir?”  
   
Lorne smirks again, looking as if he understands his confusion but can’t reveal anything. Of course he can’t. They _never_ can. What comes next still surprises him. “You’ve been a Delta operator since 2007. Married, divorced, remarried the same woman, two kids. Correct, so far?”  
   
What the hell? He resists swallowing hard. “Yes, sir.”  
   
“You are prepared to leave the Army for a private security firm based in California in a few weeks. Correct again?” Okay. That’s just plain spooky. Sure, he’d handed in his resignation papers and all. But that he was supposed to join his buddy’s security firm? No one aside from Pam knew _that_.  
   
He swallows. “Yes, sir.” Baffled enough not to blurt out what’s burning in his mind. “Permission to ask a question, sir?”  
   
He’s pretty sure there’s amusement in Lorne’s face now but it’s hard to tell. Man’s got a poker face, he has to give him that. “How do I know all of this?”  
   
Of course he’d know what he was most likely to ask. There has to be a reason why he’s commanding some top secret military contingent. “Yes, sir.”  
   
Lorne shrugs. “We have our ways.”  
   
It’s not getting any clearer. “We, sir?”  
   
“Yep. See the two guys over there?” Lorne points towards the civilians who are still keeping their distance. “They’re representatives of the civilian side of the base I command.”  
   
“What kind of post, sir?” He knew his temporary befuddlement would be a short one. And he’s surprised that Lorne doesn’t give him hell for interrupting a field grade officer. Colonel Burton and Colonel Sherwood sure as hell would have.  
   
“Joint Air Force and Marine Corps operation.” Okay, _that_ can’t be true. He’s pretty sure he never heard of _any_ joint operation between two branches as different from each other as the Air Force and the Corps. The Air Force usually has the Army to do their dirty work and the Marines are shuffled off to _their_ dirty work by the Navy. Lorne’s gotta be pulling his leg. “But we’re always looking for competent personnel from other branches, too. When we looked into the Army, we found you.”  
   
It’s _gotta_ be a joke. Sure, he’s good and he’s got a tight hold on his squad and he brought every one of them home alive every damn time they went away on a mission. But he’s not _that_ good. Most of all, he won’t be _in_ _the Army_ for much longer. “I’m… honored, sir. But you’re a couple weeks too late.”  
   
Lorne raises an eyebrow. “You mean because you handed in your resignation?” He nods. Yeah, because of that. Because Pam will _kill_ him if he only so much as _thinks_ about changing that decision. “We can always take care of that. You’d have to sign a non-disclosure agreement first, though.”  
   
Right. Of course he’d have to do that. And it’s not like he _wouldn’t_ do it and it’s not like he’s not starting to get really interested in that acclaimed joint Air Force and Marine Corps operation except that this part of his life – rigorous training, missions, feeling like a bachelor because he never gets to see either his kids or his wife – will be over soon. And that’s a good thing. He shakes his head. “Sir, part of why I wanted to resign was that I have a wife and kids who I’d like to see more often than just a couple of days each month.”  
   
There. Lorne should get _that_ or the wedding band has to be a fake. Or maybe his wife is either a lot more indulgent or a lot more _uninterested_ than Pam. “Your wife is a cop with the local PD, isn’t she?”  
   
He frowns. “Yeah.” And Pam’s a damn fine cop. Best cop he ever saw and it’s not because he’s a little biased.  
   
“We can always use skilled security and investigative personnel.” Wait, _what_? He actually does something akin to a double take.  
   
Not exactly sure if he just heard Lorne right, he narrows his eyes. “She could come _with_ me?”  
   
Lorne nods. “Yes. Your wife and your kids, and no secret missions.” It sounds too good to be true.  
   
Still skeptical, he eyes Lorne. “Because the entire installation is top secret?”  
   
The Colonel nods. “Exactly.”  
   
Fuck. He nearly has him. Staying in the Army, just for a couple years longer, doing what he loves to do, not having to keep any of that from Pam or Katie and Lucas… Too good to be true. Just too good to be true. “And all Pam and I would have to do is sign the non-disclosure agreements?”  
   
“Basically, yes.” How the hell did it happen? How could this Chair Force guy make leaving the Army sound so unappealing all of a sudden? How could he get him so interested that he seriously considers risking Pam’s wrath that will most probably end in more than just a month on the couch?  
   
He takes a look around, back to his squad, the civilians… and his CO, staring holes into Lorne’s back. So the Colonel’s been serious. Even talked to his CO before coming here. He swallows again. “Why me?”  
   
“Well,” Lorne says and rubs his neck, then makes a face. Much like he does whenever he’s gotta tell his squad off for squad night, because he’d much rather spend a free evening with Pam. Or just _any time_ he has to tell his squad off because of something Pam said or did. “I know a Marine Corps Captain who'd kill to have someone like you on her team. And I'm still lacking an anniversary present.” He… what?  
   
Involuntarily, his gaze flickers back to the ring on Lorne’s left hand. So Lorne’s wife is probably neither indulgent nor uninterested. She’s a Marine and serving on the same base. Under his command. This is just this side of weird. He frowns. “So…”  
   
“So... I'm making you an offer you can't refuse." Right. How does he know he can’t?  
   
“What makes you think so, sir?” It’s a valid question, isn’t it? So it’s okay that there’s a slightly irritated undertone to it.  
   
Lorne seems to have ignored it. Instead he starts numerating stuff on his fingers. “You don’t want to leave the Army.” It’s a statement, not a question and it pisses him off. Lorne is right. “Your wife needs more of a challenge than what she’s doing right now.” Pam _always_ needs more of a challenge. Wouldn’t be happy if she didn’t. “Your kids deserve an excellent education.” True. Katie sometimes scares him with how smart she is and Lucas needs teachers who push him enough that he can be his best.  
   
He’s not convinced. Not yet. “And you owe your Captain an anniversary present.”  
   
For a moment, he’s positive that Lorne will bust his ass and leave him standing here. Maybe that’s why he said it. It doesn’t work. It’s the face that Lorne makes that tells him that. “That, too.” Then he’s back to business. “Just think about it, Sergeant.”  
   
Before he can stop himself, he snorts and it’s out. “I’ll never get any action again if I do, sir.”  
   
There’s a little grin on Lorne’s face now. One that looks understanding. “ _I_ ’ll never get any action again if I come home without you, Sergeant.”  
   
Oh, and that’s a good reason for him to risk a second big falling out with Pam and maybe a permanent divorce, too? From the look of it, Lorne knows it’s not. It doesn’t have to be. Because he gave him plenty of _other_ reasons, _perfect_ ones. He wonders what the contingent Lorne’s commanding is like. What that Captain he married and who would give him hell is like. “Your wife, sir… she a good Marine?”  
   
There’s a short moment when Lorne’s face softens, right after he asked that question and then professional distance is back. “One of the best.” Professional distance and a weird look of pride. Probably what he looks like when he’s talking about Pam. “Could have been Recon if they’d allow women to serve there.” Lorne shrugs and grins again. “Their loss.”  
   
He’d love to know how much of that is spousal bias and how much is actually true. He’d love to meet that Captain. He’d _really_ like to keep his marriage and family intact. He frowns. “I’ll… think about it, sir.”  
   
It’s not that he regrets saying that. It’s just that he just surprised himself with not outright turning the offer down. Lorne doesn’t look surprised. “That’s all I’m asking of you, Sergeant.” Then he reaches inside his pocket and pulls out a small stack of business cards. “I’ll be stateside for two more weeks. When you reach a decision, be sure to give me a call or send me an e-mail.”  
   
Trying not to look too eager, he takes the card and has a short look at it. He’s pretty sure he never saw an e-mail address with the extension @sgc.usaf.mil before. “Will do, sir.”  
   
Lorne is about to say something when there’s the sound of a cell ringing. It’s the hymn of the Marine Corps and Lorne pulls the cell out of his pocket, saying “I gotta take this call. Carry on, Sergeant,” without even looking at the display. Then he turns around, answering his phone with, “We really need to work on the patience thing, jarhead,” and walking away, laughing and talking and pretty much seeming to having forgotten about that Sergeant he’d been so eagerly trying to convince not to end his career in the Army and sign a non-disclosure agreement instead.  
   
Operative word being _seeming_. Because he’s pretty sure Lorne knows full well about the seed he planted in his mind and that’s starting to grow rapidly even if he tries to weed it out.  
   
While Lorne goes to join the civilians – and obviously talk to his CO again – he walks back to his squad. Biedermann is being a facial smartass again and he just growls, “Get up. Been sitting around on your asses way too long. Any longer and no one will consider us Deltas anymore,” forestalling any attempts at trying to squeeze him for information on that Chair Force type who’d dragged him away.  
   
It’s working, at least on his squad because they get up for what would be the last run through the obstacle course if he wasn’t suddenly in the mood for two more. _If_ he’s gonna work with a Marine, he sure as hell should be up to scratch. He just has to find a way how to break it to Pam that there actually _is_ that if, even though he knows it’s a damn bad idea and even though he’s kind of pissed at Lorne for triggering all of this. First, though, training. He’s gonna figure out everything else later. Good plan.


	2. Been a Bad Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That Army brat is going to be the death of Rodney McKay. Someday soon, she will.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was fun. And exhausting. Like it always is for me when writing Rodney. The implicated, onesided McKay/Cadman was unintentional, though. I swear.

**Been A Bad Day**  
   
 _“It's been a bad day.  
Please don't take a picture.  
It's been a bad day.  
Please.”_  
   
 _REM, “Bad Day”_

   
He curses the day that Morgan or Molan or whatever their name was family ever set foot on Atlantis.  
   
No, actually he curses the day Evan Lorne asked that Sergeant – Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, he doesn’t care – to join the expedition. Rumor has it, he did because he owed his wife some present or other and only someone like Lorne could get the thoroughly idiotic idea to present his wife with a _soldier for her team_ to avoid having to sleep on the couch. He’s been cursing the day for twelve months now. And he’s cursing it again right now. With expletives that would make Sheppard God rest his soul blush deep red.  
   
It’s not that he has a problem with that Sergeant, whatever his name is. He doesn’t even talk to the man since he made it a habit not to talk to members of Cadman’s team if it isn’t absolutely unavoidable because the fate of the galaxy depends on it. It’s not the Sergeant’s wife either, although she has a firm grip on law enforcement in the city and runs this radio show that’s regularly grating on his nerves. No, it’s the Sergeant’s _kids_. Actually, just _one_ kid.  
   
When that family – God forbid he’s ever gonna learn any of their names because that would mean he actually acknowledges them – came to Atlantis from their backwater posting somewhere they don’t even have snow, staring at their surroundings wide-eyed and slack-jawed like the yokels they are, they also brought two kids with them.  
   
A girl and a boy and until now he could pretty much ignore the boy. He couldn’t escape the girl, though. He’s got no idea how old she is but she sure as hell is nosy, inconsiderate and rude enough to be a damn teenager. Always snooping around in his labs, keeping his scientists from doing their jobs with stupid questions only kids who were victims of that school system for trained monkeys the military calls their education could ask and being a general pain in the ass.  
   
Unfortunately, she also inherited the gene, as the only one in her family. Even though he wishes he could just throw her out of his lab, he needs her for his research. So he glares at her when she peers into the lab he’s working in right now instead of just snapping at her like he’d done to her brother a couple of times until the kids’ mother had threatened to make _him_ the target of her next stupid broadcast. He hopes it might scare the girl away, just for once.  
   
“Hey, Doc Rod.” No such luck. _Again_.  
   
He continues glaring. “It’s _Dr. McKay_ , Kelly.”  
   
She scrunches her nose and rolls her eyes, looking dangerously much like Cadman. “My name is _Katie_. Everyone can remember _that_. Why can’t _you_?”  
   
At the moment Kendra entered his lab, the Ancient device closest to her hums. Contently? “Didn’t your parents tell you to call adults “sir” or “ma’am”? I’m pretty sure there’s some regulation on that in the military.”  
   
That makes her… smirk. Unbelievable. A teenager is _smirking_ at him. “They said I can call _you_ whatever I want. And Captain Laura says so, too.”  
   
Of course. _Of course_ Cadman – he keeps refusing to call her by her married name because he’s still in denial about her having married Lorne and joined forces with _that man_ – would say so. And of course Kiddie would do whatever she said. That girl would jump off a cliff if Cadman so much as hinted at that being a good idea.  
   
Which she actually kind of did when she told the kid about that paratrooper bomb whatever stuff she did before she came to Atlantis three days ago. It’s not that he was listening in, he just was unfortunate enough to sit two tables away and they didn’t exactly keep their voices down… “Hey, what’s this doing, Doc Rod?”  
   
Oh _Jesus_ fucking Christ. “Put that _down_ , Kacey!”  
   
Defiantly, the kid glares at him and… the thing that’s still in her hand lights up for a short moment, makes a strange plopping sound and… little bubbles start forming on and emerging from its top. What the hell? There’s a moment of mutual bafflement and _that_ baffles him enough to make him miss that suddenly, the bubbles are making for _him_.  
   
When the first one bursts against his uniform sleeve, it’s too late and suddenly the smell of _lemons_ fills the room. Something in him just _flips_ and full grown panic has him in its iron grip. Lemon, he thinks, the damn kid activated something by accident and it has to be something _containing_ lemon and holy crap, _he just can’t_ breathe.  
   
He’s aware of the fact that he’s hyperventilating and in the corner of his mind _not_ occupied with trying to stay alive he hears himself say that those children were going to be the death of him, a couple of days ago and isn’t _that_ funny how his half-uttered prediction is becoming true and…  
   
“Is that _your_ doing, Miss Moran, or was that some “invisible alien entity” again?”  
   
He blinks, fully forgetting to hyperventilate and instead staring at the figure having… _materialized_ in the doorway. He blinks again, taking in the barely veiled smirk. She must have _sensed_ that it was _him_ on the brink of death here and then flown or levitated or beamed here with those creepy Marine super powers, just to gloat. There’s no other way Cadman could suddenly have appeared like that. He _knew_ she was having some weird woman infantry witch thing going on and _that_ ’s the proof he’d been looking for for so…  
   
“It was… erm… neither,” Keira says and adds, almost as an afterthought, “ma’am,” and for some reason that pisses him off. _Cadman_ gets a “ma’am” and _he_ doesn’t even get a “Doctor”? What kind of education did her parents give her?  
   
Still looking infuriatingly amused, Cadman raises her eyebrow. “It wasn’t?” Kitty shakes her head. “What was it then?”  
   
Could they _please_ stop talking as if he weren’t… “Bubbles,” is all the kids says.  
   
“Bubbles?” is what Cadman asks as if she’s deaf or something.  
   
He’s about to tell her that yes, _goddamn bubbles_ but Katrina beats him to it. “Yep. I just asked him what this does and then it… woke up and told me it wants to have some fun and before I could tell it not to, it produces bubbles that go straight over to Doc Rod.”  
   
Some fun? An Ancient device told her it wants to have _some fun_? “They were _lethal_ bubbles! This is _not_ a laughing matter, Kaleigh! And _you_ , Cadman…”  
   
She rolls his eyes and he’s pretty sure he saw a copy of that in the kid’s face. “ _If_ you insist on calling me by my last name, do try to make it the correct one, Rodney. I got married almost _two years ago_.” Yeah, and he’ll never forgive her for _that_.  
   
He glares at her. “Fine, _Captain Lorne_. This is not funny. I was being _assaulted_ by _poisonous_ …”  
   
“It says the bubbles aren’t poisonous. It just wanted to see your reaction.” Couldn’t that kid just _shut the fuck up_? And now she’s looking at that thing in an almost… affectionate way. “I think it’s a little prankster.”  
   
He’s pretty sure he just heard Cadman mutter “Yeah, no shit, Sherlock” but what she says out loud is, “As long as it only chooses Rodney as its target…” and then she shares a stupid grin with Kara and the hero worship with which the kid looks at Cadman nearly makes him sick. Just what he needed. A mini Cadman in the making. “Anyway, your mom’s been looking for you all over the place, young lady. I promised her I’d bring you home if I happened to stumble over you.”  
   
It’s kind of scary how much it satisfies him that for a moment, the worship is replaced by almost teenager like annoyance but the moment was too nice to be true which is probably why it ends too soon. The new look in place is almost pleading. “Do you _have_ to drag me back?”  
   
Cadman shrugs. “A promise is a promise, Army brat. ‘Sides, your mother is just too plain scary to be ignored.” Oh, ahaha, sure, _Laura Cadman_ is afraid of an ex-cop turned head of law enforcement with a radio show. More like being best chums is what it’s like, he thinks because he’s seen Cadman and that Morel woman hang out together practically every minute both women aren’t fawning about their respective husbands.  
   
The kid scrunches her nose at Cadman’s assessment of her mother. “She says the same of you every time dad asks her to ask you to go easy on him if he screws up.”  
   
Hello, he wants to say, still here, still having nearly _died_? Can someone please… “Far as I know, your dad _doesn’t_ screw up,” Cadman replies frowning and he’s pretty sure she just lied. _No one_ goes through service on an off world team for over a year in Atlantis without _ever_ screwing up. The kid – he’s kind of tired thinking up new names for her so he doesn’t have to remember her real one – however, just gives her a withering glance that reminds him of the kid’s mother. It has an interesting effect on Cadman, too. “Well, that explains it, then. It’s good to know I rule through fear instead of inspiration. Anyway…”  
   
“Could you just please leave already?” Because he’s getting tired of this and most of all of having Cadman in his doorway and _just not leaving_ and he kind of ignores that suddenly, Cadman’s presence is getting to him much more than the kid’s. It’s probably because it’s the longest time he ever spent in the same room with her, almost alone, since she got married.  
   
She throws him a strange look. “Of course, Rodney. Come on, Army brat, Dr. McKay needs some alone time to sulk. He’s not happy if he can’t sulk, so let’s do him that favor.”  
   
Yeah, he wants to say as they both turn to go, get out and take that kid with you. Go back to the man who replaced Colonel Sheppard and… who replaced Colonel Sheppard and gives you Army Sergeants as anniversary presents and still makes you smile when… _others_ would have made you kick their asses. Instead, he says, “And take that… _thing_ with you, kid.”  
   
The kid… turns around and takes a long look at him before she slowly shakes her head and puts the device back on its table. At his evil glare, she just shrugs and explains, “I don’t think you need time to sulk. I think you need to have a little fun and it thinks the same. It says it’s ready for you whenever you are.”  
   
It’s the last thing she says before she turns around and joins Cadman who gave him a smirk and looked at the kid as if to say “Army brat’s right. Go and have some _fun_ for a change”. As they walk down the corridor, animatedly chatting about some probably explosions related topic or other, he eyes the device again. It seems to sit there and mock him, taunting him… and he catches himself thinking that maybe it _is_ time he starts having some fun again.  
   
First thing, he thinks, will be taking this thing to Dr. Marina Stuyvesant’s engineer shack and dissemble it until it’s sorry it ever spewed a bubble at him. Stuyvesant likes that kind of thing and he kind of likes Stuyvesant and maybe… maybe that kid is scarier than her mother and Cadman combined. He’ll have to remember that next time she barges into his office.


	3. Every Now and Then (We’re Actually Pretty Fine)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If there is one thing Chase Moran _doesn't_ like about Atlantis, it's that there's literally no way to find your kids if they don't want you to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, hey, it's been two years since I wrote in this 'verse and look who's back, after I made sure to kill him off... Anyway, I hope you like it :)

** Every Now and Then (We’re Actually Pretty Fine) **

_„Aff un zo läuf alles super,_   
_aff un zo ess mer dä Loser,_   
_aff un zo steht mer sich selvs em Wääsch._   
_Aff un zo deit dir ding Seel wieh._   
_Aff un zo hätt mer janz einfach keine Plan mieh,_   
_aff un zo jeht et uns janit schlääsch.“_

_BAP, „Aff un Zo“_

 “Alright, everyone, that’s it for today. And remember, tomorrow night is this month’s big bake off, Athosian ingredients only special night. The life sciences department expects participants from all other departments and no, it’s not a secret social experiment like last month, they’re swearing it on their pretty floral bonnets. Take care, folks, Moran out.”

 He smiles, still loving it to hear his wife over the air waves every single day, even after a year and a half of this crazy city. And, if he’s honest, Pam’s radio show isn’t the only thing he still likes about this city. His team leader, for one thing, did turn out to be exceptional, even for a Marine (never “for a woman” because Pam would skewer him alive if she ever saw him thinking it, and possible half the rest of the female population in this city, too). Evan Lorne is a good CO, Air Force or not and for a civilian, Colonel Carter’s replacement Richard Woolsey isn’t so bad, either.

 There’s only one thing that drives both Pam and him _nuts_ and it’s that the kids seem to see this city as a kind of huge playground. Katie especially because she has the gene that still freaks him out sometimes and literally everything lights up when she enters a room – once or twice, Pam and he had to _forcefully_ remind the scientists that their daughter is _not_ a glorified fucking light switch – but Lucas is giving them his share of grief, as well.

 Not that they’re badly behaved per se but a year and a half away from the rather rigid discipline of an Army post have done wonders for their curiosity and ressourcefulness and Pam and he still have trouble deciding whether that’s a good thing or not.

 Right now… it’s _definitely_ a bad thing because Jesus fucking Christ where are those damn kids when you need to find them for their mandatory annual physical? And of course, the city isn’t exactly helpful, either. They showed him how to work the life signs detector of course, like they did for every newbie but whatever Katie told the city to do, it obeyed her and their life signs don’t show up anywhere. Didn’t they tell their kids _not_ to do that, _ever_? Seriously…

 “Looking for something, Sergeant?” Oh. Retired and not supposed to be still alive Colonel John Sheppard. Not the person he’d expected.

 He narrows his eyes. Even six months after the man all the old hands seemed to worship had turned up unexpectedly on an abandoned planet and after half a week of medical tests, Jennifer Keller, their COM had declared him to be the genuine article and everyone started worshipping the ground he walks on again, including Lorne.

  _Especially_ Lorne, to be honest.

 But then again, apparently he used to be the man’s file rat, err second in command for a couple years and well, apparently Lorne thinks he owes a lot of the things he is today – a colonel, the commander of the military contingent in the Pegasus galaxy, husband of Laura Lorne – to Sheppard so it’s probably not that much of a surprise that he’d actually be relieved that they managed to find a guy that was supposed to be dead for two and a half years, after all.

 So. He rubs his neck. “Yeah, well, you don’t happen to have seen my kids? You know, girl and boy, thirteen and eleven…”

 “Those two, per chance?” Huh, what… oh. Oh Jesus fucking Christ, it’s actually Katie and Lucas, sitting in the common room Sheppard just vacated, standing on a Twister board on all fours and what the fuck is going on here?

 “Uh, sir, what exactly…”

 “It’s John.” Huh? “Just John. I ceased to be sir two and a half years ago.” Right. Not a military officer anymore. Actually, not even a personnel record anymore because it was closed two and a half years ago and never re-opened, seeing as everyone unanimously agreed on “letting sleeping dogs lie” and sort of “neglected” to tell Earth that hey, surprise, the black sheep of the Air Force is still alive.

 He clears his throat, not sure how to deal with this. “Right, uh, John. So about my kids…”

 “Oh, yeah, right. Hey, guys, your father’s here to pick you up. You maybe wanna go with him or something?” That’s not really how he’d have said it – especially the drawl and the _slight_ sarcastic undertone – but uh, at least Sheppard acknowledged him?

 His kids, though, don’t seem to be overly enthusiastic to accompany him to the infirmary. “Aw, Colonel John, we’re in the middle of the _game_.” Yeah, well, he actually gets that they aren’t in a mood to let Keller’s minions stab needles in their arms but Pam will make him sleep on the couch if they miss that appointment _again_ and he’s not found of that couch, _at all_.

 He rolls his eyes and positions himself in the doorway. “Yeah, I can see that and you can go _back_ to it as soon we’re done with the physical.”

 Behind him, he can hear Sheppard chuckle and for a moment he’s tempted to whip around and ask him if he ever intends to have kids because if he keeps that up, he sure as hell isn’t. Seriously. Retired Air Force laughing about him, what the fuck.

 “Can we at least _finish_ the game, Dad? We don’t have to be at the infirmary for two more _hours_.” Dammit, sometimes Katie’s too smart for both Pam and him together and the only reason they didn’t send her back to Earth for finishing high school at a boarding school in upstate New York preferred by Atlantis personnel was that she’d be bored to tears there after approximately two and a half months and a bored Katie equals an _unhappy_ Katie and an unhappy Katie… well.

 And of course Lucas isn’t very helpful either, adding, “You always say we have to finish everything we start, Dad.”

  _Jesus_ fucking Christ, at least neither Lorne nor the _other_ Lorne are here at the moment because his team leader would have a field day and the contingent’s CO would just join her in her amusement. Just another downside to a civilian led post: COs aren’t gonna reprimand you for misbehaving children, COs are gonna laugh their asses off when you try to discipline them, at least if the misbehavior doesn’t include getting anyone in danger of getting hurt or killed or worse.

 Anyway… “Kid’s got you there, Sergeant.” Yeah, well, _not_ helpful, Retired Air Force.

 Now he does turn around to level his best Delta team leader on Sheppard but the guy’s grin just gets bigger and doesn’t even vanish when he says, “Why are they in there, anyway?” in a tone suggesting torture and other not so nice things if Sheppard goes on criticizing his parenting.

 Sheppard, though, just shrugs. “Found them messing around in one of the unexplored levels when your daughter was beating the crap out of your son at playing hide and seek. She’s got a killer strength gene, that one.”

 Oh yeah, don’t remind him. When they’d come here, she’d just entered the age in which hide and seek is starting to become very uncool but apparently, it gains a lot of appeal when you have an entire city as your ally and there is literally nowhere that your brother, who’s still stupid enough to think he will beat you one day can hide from you. He just wishes they’d stop going into the unexplored – and fucking _dangerous_ – levels of the city. He actually sighs. “Yeah, don’t mention it around her. She’ll just go on reminding all of us how this city wouldn’t work without people without her and all that crap that she’s been hearing around the natural gene carriers these days.”

 “It’s true, you know.” Uh, what? “The thing about all of you being fucked without the gene carriers. Take it from one of the very first to get here.” Oh just fucking great. Not only are his daughter and his CO natural gene carriers, the guy the old hands worship the crap out of is, too. “But don’t tell her I said that.”

 And he’s such a damn nice guy, too.

 “Hey, how about someone turns the damn err the hand of the color thingy?” Ah, ah, Katie, that’s not how your momma raised you. “Err, please. How about someone turns the color thingy hand, _please_?”

 Well, at least one of his _looks_ is still working on her, even though she just became a teenager a few weeks ago. He’ll enjoy it while it lasts.

 “So, Sergeant…” Yes? “What do you say?” To what? “Do you have what it takes to show those two beginners how it really works?”

 Is that a fucking _challenge_?

 Oh hell yeah it is and if there’s one thing he could _never_ turn down, it’s a challenge and he’ll be damned if he lets Retired Air Force get away with that. And anyway, they still have two hours to go. Plenty enough to show _Sheppard_ how this is done. He crosses his arm in front of his chest. “Hell yeah, I do. Let’s get this cleared up, _John_.”

 Next to him, Sheppard grins and he realizes he probably just stepped over a booby trap but what the hell, he’s not gonna let Air Force and retired at that showing him up, _in front of his fucking kids_ and so he steps into the room, growling, “Get off that mat and let a pro handle this, kids. This just became a question of honor.”

 The squeals of delight he gets from both of his kids are just the icing on the cake to feeling the call of a challenge ring through his veins and hey, maybe this could even be a team thing during their next team evening… anyway, he’s got a Twister game to win and by God he will. And if it takes a night on that horrible couch, he _will_ win this. Oh _yes_.

~*~

"Every now and then, everything goes great  
Every now and then, you’re the loser  
Every now and then, you’re standing in your own way  
Every now and then, you’re just lost  
Every now and then, we’re actually pretty fine."

BAP, “Every Now and Then”


	4. Grow and See

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pamela Moran gets to watch something interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holiday Fic Request Meme. Okay, since it seems that I messed up in prompts, I decided to finally fill that prompt from two years ago and give you Katie Moran and Ronon Dex in one story, **hanseatic_keks** , I hope that's okay for you!

**Grow And See **

  
_  
“A naoidhean bhig, cluinn mo ghuth_   
_Mise ri d' thaobh, O mhaighdean bhàn_   
_Ar rìbhinn òg, fàs a's faic_   
_Do thìr, dìleas féin_   
_A ghrian a's a ghealach, stiùir sinn_   
_Gu uair ar cliù 's ar glòir_   
_Naoidhean bhig, ar rìbhinn òg_   
_Maighdean uasal bhàn.”_   


_  
Emma Thompson feat. Peigi Barker, “A Mhaighdean Bhan Uasal”_

One of the advantages of raising kids in Atlantis is that they more or less stop hating just about every class they hated back on Earth. Of course it’s harder to get a formalized education for them with still not enough kids in the same age to form an actual high school class and you end up almost home schooling them but then again, there are enough scientists here of all kinds of disciplines that feel the need to bestow the less fortunate with their knowledge that you can always find someone to teach your kid about the political system of Uganda or the mating cycles of assorted bivalves or, you know, quantum physics.  
  
But yeah, the most favorite subject among _all_ the kids in Atlantis is PE, taught by a variety of military personnel. And Ronon Dex. When they’d first come to Atlantis one and a half year ago, the resident aliens were the one thing that had thrown her for a loop. Okay, yes, giant city that’s also a space ship in a different galaxy with space vampires and nineteenth century industrial age societies and stone age planets, that was some kind of a shock but yeah, dangerous aliens that _look_ like aliens, that was kinda par for the course.  
  
She has read her share of science fiction stuff in her youth and she’d _expected_ aliens to be strange and different. She hadn’t expected them to look and talk like humans and live among the population of the city. She kept reminding herself that on this post she and her family were the newbies, the different ones but damn had it been weird to learn about Ronon’s and Teyla’s histories when they’d briefed her for her new job as head of law enforcement in the city.  
  
Even after one and a half years and working together with both of them, she still can’t really wrap her head around this Wraith DNA thing and that Runner stuff… that was some strong meat. And here he is her kids’ self defense trainer and she still doesn’t really know how to feel about that.  
  
Sure, he’s good, she could see that right from the beginning and he did alright with the kids but she’d felt a little better when she’d heard that Laura Lorne would be his co-trainer. Somehow, Ronon and Laura had complimented each other as coaches and she hadn’t hesitated with letting her kids take part in the self defense lessons.  
  
But now Laura’s barred from anything remotely close to hand to hand combat training, just like every other newly pregnant Marine and who did they ask to take over her position for the duration?  
  
That’s right, your friendly neighborhood head of law enforcement.  
  
Alright then, it’s not like she hasn’t done her share of community outreach school visits and self-defense training classes for girls of varying ages but that’s been ages ago? And yeah, she works out regularly and keeps up with her mandatory skills reviews. And _yes_ , she’s a mother and she knows how to handle her or anyone else’s kids. But damn, those kids are _Atlantis_ kids. Atlantis kids are… different, especially those born here, that at least she learned very fast.  
  
Anyway, she thinks, there’s no use in moping, so better buck up and soldier on, Moran. And so she straightens up and opens the door to the work-out room, expecting it to be empty so early before the last, only to be greeted with the sight of her daughter standing in front of Ronon, her arms akimbo, looking up to him with a fierceness she sometimes sees in the mirror when she’s particularly pissed off and saying, “My Daddy is way more bad ass than you.”  
  
Uh. Okay.  
  
A little taken aback, she looks at the big guy in front of her daughter to see him smirking into his beard, his arms crossed in front of his chest. “Tally’s still ten to six, Moran,” he says as if that answers everything and she thinks she remembers Chase telling her one evening that he could have been here for five years and still wouldn’t ever beat Ronon Dex more often that Dex beat him. It was quite an admission for a former Delta operator.  
  
She wonders if he ever told Katie the same because her only answer is, “Yeah, but how do you know he didn’t let you win those four fights?”  
  
Whoa, Katie, she thinks and wants to intervene when she hears a low voice next to her say, “I wouldn’t, if I were you.”  
  
Jesus fucking Christ, that damn sneaking up on you thing that the old hands really love to do to anyone past second wave is still getting her. And Laura Lorne knows it very well from the way she grins at her. “Oh yeah, and why is that, Captain Know It All?”  
  
Laura grins again while Ronon tells her daughter that he never figured “she thought her father didn’t know honor” and then Laura says, “It’s their warm up ritual.” Err, what? “Kinda like two boxers before a big fight. Katie likes to come in early and get a bit of extra training and this is how they get ready for it.”  
  
Okay, what? “Uh, you lost me there.”  
  
Because she’s pretty sure that she’d _know_ if her daughter went to any private self-defense or other sessions with anyone in this city. Apparently, she forgot that Katie’s a teenager now. _Again_. And to make matters worse, Laura seems to _enjoy_ seeing the Grandmistress of Sass, her ladyship Pamela Moran, flustered. “Didn’t she tell you? She wants to be a Marine.”  
  
Oh holy shit, she can’t believe they’re talking about this. And she can’t believe that Katie just told Ronon that “he doesn’t know anything about Delta operators, obviously”, as if that explained anything of that nonsense. She glares at Laura. “Yeah but… we didn’t think she’d be serious about it. She’s _thirteen_ , for Heaven’s sake.”  
  
Laura just shrugs. “Apparently, she’s being _dead_ serious about it. And you know, I was ten when I knew that I all I ever wanted to be was a Marine.”  
  
Crap. And here she thought there was no harm in that very obvious little hero worship thing her daughter had going on for her husband’s team leader but… oh, okay, that’s silly. There _is_ no harm in that because honestly, Laura Lorne is one of the most bad-ass people she knows in this entire city, she’s honorable, responsible, dutiful and yeah, maybe she’s also prone to the occasional mischief involving things that go boom but she’d never once hesitate with trusting her with the lives of her children or anyone else in this city.  
  
But knowing that Katie, that her precious little girl was _serious_ about becoming one of the few, the proud… that’s quite another thing.  
  
On the mat, Ronon tells her daughter that he’s pretty sure that _she_ doesn’t know anything about being a Delta operator, either and that only challenges to Katie to start citing every little bit of Delta lore she knows from her father, from selection to training to actual deployments – which honestly, she shouldn’t know anything about – and she finds her heart doing a painful little squeeze that she can only identify as the knowledge setting in her that her little girl is starting to grow up in earnest. She smiles and it’s an effort not to make it look too sad. “You know… I was eleven when I knew that being a cop was my calling.”  
  
It’s not even a lie or anything, it’s nothing but the truth and she shares a small grin of complete understanding with Laura. And then the other woman surprises her by saying in a fully serious and earnest voice, “She’d be good at it, I think. She’d be a compliment for that uniform.”  
  
She tries not to but for a moment, just a very short one, she pictures a grown-up Katie wearing USMC Class A’s, with their midnight blue jacket and blood red stripes on the trousers and snow white cover and it fills her heart with stupid pride, stupid not because she knows that Chase always secretly wanted one of his kids to join the _Army_ but because _she_ never wanted her kids to join _any_ of the services, not even the damn Coast Guard. But she can see Katie so clearly as a Marine, just for a moment, that it hurts.  
  
As Ronon tells her to quit the chatter and start to do some real work, she swallows against the big lump in her throat and her voice is unexpectedly raw when she tells Laura, “This is the moment where I’d tell you never to have kids but I guess it’s too late for that now, huh?”  
  
Also, it would be idiotic because she’s probably one of the very few people in this city who know that for the last two and a half years, Laura and Evan Lorne have been trying for a kid so badly that they were close to giving it up just out of pure exhaustion shortly before Laura started puking on a daily basis. She thinks she never saw _anyone_ so – surreptitiously, granted, but very clear to see for everyone who knows her closer – happy about the onset of morning sickness.  
  
Laura shrugs again. “Yeah, I wouldn’t have listened, anyway. Oh look, there comes the charge,” she says in the exact same moment as ten kids of ages varying between seven and fifteen suddenly storm the work-out room, right when Ronon is explaining how to break a choke hold to Katie, and Laura grins again, “enjoy it while it lasts. I miss it.”  
  
Yeah, right. Enjoy it. Probably the best way to go about it. She gives Laura a pained expression. “You’ll have them back in about seven months. Enjoy the time _without_ them.”  
  
“Nah,” Laura says, “I think I’ll join you today.” At the evil look she gives her, Laura just rolls her eyes in a “Jeez, _Mom_ ” kind of way and adds, “Just to _watch_. And you know, help you through your first day and all that.”  
  
That makes _her_ roll her eyes and grumble something about overbearing Momma Bear Marines and Laura snorts and drags her into the room with a “Come on, let’s get to work, Moran” and she lets her, in the exactly right moment to walk past Katie murmuring, “And my dad will _always_ be more bad ass than you,” defiantly under her breath and okay, maybe this is going to be fun, after all.  
  
Maybe she can get Katie to tell Ronon Dex that her _mom_ is more bad ass than both her dad and Ronon together. Maybe… she should make that her goal for today. Because, you know, everyone needs goals and that seems to be one worthy of being pursued. So when Laura mouths “Go get ‘em, Tiger” when she settles down in a corner of the room, she gives her friend a thumbs up and readies herself for a challenging lesson. She always liked challenges and she never backed down from one. She won’t do so now, either. Hell to the yeah.  


 

~*~

  
“Little baby, hear my voice  
I'm beside you, O maiden fair  
Our young Lady, grow and see  
Your land, your own faithful land  
Sun and moon, guide us  
To the hour of our glory and honour  
Little baby, our young Lady  
Noble maiden fair.”  
  
Emma Thompson feat. Peigi Barker, “Noble Maiden Fair”


End file.
